Catching up

Okay, so it's been awhile since I last posted, and a lot has been happening. I'll try to bring you up-to-date with the highlights, but unfortunately we've misplaced the cord to connect our camera to the computer; so this post will be without pictures. If I find the cord, I'll throw up some pictures in another post.

1. Ultrasounds

E and A both had ultrasounds done at the local children's hospital at the end of May, in a continuing attempt to figure out what's causing their fevers. We had prepared them for the ultrasound with lots of talk ahead of time about what would happen. And, in fact, when we arrived there was even a fight about who got to go first. Yeah, well, that didn't last. By the time we were in the examining room, neither wanted to submit to the torture, and we had to hold poor A on the table while the technician did the work. And she a strong one (A not the technician). :-) Actually, after the first few minutes, when she realized it didn't hurt (I guess mommy and daddy's word on that wasn't believable) she settled down and was fine. And then when it was E's turn it was okay because she'd already seen A go through it.

They weren't allowed to eat anything before the ultrasounds, but we had plied them with Popsicles to try to ensure they had full bladders for the ultrasound... but not too full that they had to pee. It's a delicate balance with three year-olds, and in the end A peed before she hit the exam room, but then had to pee again during the ultrasound. And I had to take E out to the washroom mid-way through the ultrasound because she just absolutely could not hold it any longer.

2. Mennonite Relief Sale

Right after the ultrasounds, we had lunch and hit the road for southern Ontario for our annual trek to the Mennonite Relief Sale.(http://www.nhmrs.com/) Saturday was a beautiful day and we enjoyed filling up on pork on a bun, fresh donuts, and apple fritters, with about 20,000 of our friends. :-) Tragically, for the first time ever, we missed out on the strawberry pie. It was sold out by the time I made my way inside the arena.

3. E's dentist appointment

E had a visit to the dentist in early June (A had an appointment awhile ago, did I blog about that?). She did fantastic. Not only did she sit in the big scary chair, but she even let the hygienist check her teeth, clean them, floss a bit, and put some fluoride on them. And she even helped out by handling Mr. Slurpy (the hose-thing that sucks up the water out of your mouth when they spray it in to rinse). And then, when the dentist came in, she let him have a look too. (A, at her appointment, was happy to hear about what goes on, and play with Mr. Slurpy, but wasn't willing to let them do anything to her other than a quick "count" of her teeth.) When E was finished she was allowed to pick out three toys from the treasure chest. I helped her find three, but really she wanted one thing in particular and that was it. (A small, squishy, gel-like blob that doesn't do anything.) So, while I talked to the hygienist to try to coordinate the next appointments of A and E, she went back to the treasure chest and put the other two toys back. Never mind that A came back from her visit to the dentist with a toy for her sister and brother too.

4. B's dedication

The next weekend my mom and dad came for a visit to be here for B's dedication at our church. Those of you who attend our church know what a fiasco that was. For everyone else, lets just say there was lots of running around at the front of the church when we were supposed to be standing still and listening. I'm sure everyone in the pews were thinking that we should never have gone back to China for a third child, because clearly we are having trouble managing the first two (and now the third). :-)

5. Another weekend of travelling

Last weekend we hit the road again for southern Ontario to be there for the milestone birthday celebration of a good friend of ours. (Happy b-day, K!) This trip also coincided with Field Day (a fun day in the small village I'm from), so we took in a bit of that while we were there, and won the prize for having made the longest trip to get there. And it really was the 'longest' trip... we hit Toronto traffic on the way down, and what used to be a 5.5 hour trip for DoT and I before we had the kids, turned into a 9 hour drive.

Before we left on Friday morning, the girls got their hair cut. In spite of the fact that they both insisted they wanted short hair "like B's", I only let them cut off about 2.5 inches. When I'm able, I'll post pictures.

Of course, all of this was complicated by the fact that ALL the kids had fevers over the weekend. E's started Thursday evening, A's started Friday evening, and B's started Saturday. On the up side, there were no seizures this time. I felt like I was giving meds constantly though... the girls were getting Advil/Tylenol every three hours and B got thrown in there too from time to time. (His fever wasn't really too bad.) Plus, we have a heavy medication schedule for the girls now since we took them to a witch doctor Naturopath in early June. We take a whole bunch of different medications/supplements which means that basically I spend most of the day running after them with spoons full of stuff trying to get them to down it. (Sorry if I've offended any strong believers in Naturopaths. Take comfort in the fact that if this all works and gets rid of the fevers, I'll be the biggest convert to the benefits of Naturopathy in history.)

The girls stayed home from daycare yesterday, but are back today and we're trying to get back into our regular routine.

I think that about covers the highlights of our last few weeks. Like I said, I'll try to post some pictures soon. And maybe even another blog post.

K..